Remnant bin mac and cheese

You know the remnant bin at fabric stores, where they slash prices on oddly shaped or small leftover pieces from fabric bolts?  I love that bin.  Those pieces are big enough for most projects and are very versatile.  I recently heard a rumor that Whole Foods has a similar remnant bin, but for cheese!

After slicing and packaging customer orders, they end up with small pieces of cheese that won't sell at regular price, so they discount them and sell them from the remnant bin!  Who knew?  I always wondered what happened when the last customer orders 1/2 lb. of Guggisberg Swiss, leaving an inch of cheese left on the wheel.  Unlike the Montauk Monster, this mystery is solved.  Don't you feel better now, knowing what happens to that cheese?  I know I do. :)

Dave and I stopped at Whole Foods on the way home to check out this cheese remnant bin, and picked up 4 small blocks of cheese.  We got Guggisberg swiss, Wisconsin mammoth cheddar, muenster, and romano locatelli.  We also picked up some chicken broth so I could make microwave macaroni and cheese with my bargain cheeses!

I put the box of pasta and package of chicken broth in my deep covered baker and microwaved it for about 15 minutes, stopping it about every 5 minutes to stir it.  The broth should completely cover all the noodles before you start cooking it, which seems like overkill, but by the time you cook it and add the cheese, it should all be absorbed.  While that was working, I grated about half of the 3 big blocks and the whole piece of Guggisberg, since it was pretty small. 

Here's the pasta after 15 minutes in the microwave - there's just a little bit of broth left at the bottom, but once you put in the cheese and stir it all together, the broth that's still in there will thicken up to create creamy, cheesy goodness.  I decided not to add the romano cheese to it - it was a little too sharp-smelling to me.  The others were soft and smooth.  Didn't have a good feeling about it, so I left it out.

Once I added the cheese and stirred it, I microwaved it for about 3 more minutes to thicken it all up, and here's the finished product: